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Communications

Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.

The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.

More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.

A letter opener made of cream colored celluloid. Advertising copy for "The Hub," a clothier in Chicago, is on the blade. The handle is a molded head of a clown, finely detailed and with hand-painted features.

"Henry C. Lytton and Sons Company, popularly known as "The Hub," was one of the city's premier clothing stores during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The main store was originally located on the northwest corner of State and Jackson Streets in Chicago's Loop. In 1912, the store moved into the newly built Lytton Building at 235-243 South State Street. Though specializing in men's clothing, The Hub also had retail sales departments devoted to women's clothing, children's wear, shoes, and other accessories."

A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The decorative elements include a vase, with doves perched on its base. Inside the vase are pansies. It appears at first that there is one flower in the vase, but the pansies unfold to reveal two flowers behind the one in front. The flowers and other parts are hand-painted.

A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two birds holding the traces in their beaks. The decorative parts have been hand-painted. The birds fold back behind the wagon in order to mail the card. A message and an address are on the back. The card is also stamped and the stamp has been cancelled.

A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two dogs whose traces are garlands of flowers. The celluloid parts are hand-painted. The dogs fold back behind the wagon.

A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a pot of flowers set on a stand with a hen, chicks, and eggs folding out from the stand. All celluloid parts are hand-painted. The back has a message and addressee, but was not stamped.

Elaborate folding valentine featuring die-cut automobile of about 1900 set against a gilded architectural framework resting on a blue, cloud-like scalloped ground. "To My Valentine" and "Printed in Germany" are printed on the verso of the bottom fold. The valentine was given by David E. Ream to Marion A. Hartman (Ream) early in their lives together. They were married in 1915. The valentine was displayed in their Pennsylvania home every February, a tradition continued by their granddaughter Pat Compher who donated the card in 2013.